This is a Facebook support group for rape victims of the prisons of the Islamic Republic of Iran. For the majority of Iranians being raped is a source of great shame. The social stigma is attached to the victims of rape, not its perpetrators. With the formation of this group we hope to make it possible to discuss rape and its consequences openly and without embarrassment, and to encourage the families to support and love rape victims, and bring a positive change in the views of Iranians who condemn and stigmatize them.

this brief [42 pages report as pdf] is base on extensive research carried out over a two-year period pointing to systematic, widespread, state-sponsored policies that place sexual torture, including rape, at the heart of the Islamic Republic’s judicial machinery and arms such as the Islamic Republic Guards Corps.It also delineates the wide-ranging forms of sexual torture practiced in prisons since the inception of the Islamic Republic. The most appalling practice remains ‘rape of virgins’ prior to execution. The Islamic Republic is the first state to justify and rationalize this form of torture in the name of religion …

Sexual violence is one of the most horrific weapons of war, an instrument of terror used against women. Yet huge numbers of men are also victims. In this harrowing report, Will Storr travels to Uganda to meet traumatised survivors, and reveals how male rape is endemic in many of the world’s conflicts

Of all the secrets of war, there is one that is so well kept that it exists mostly as a rumour. It is usually denied by the perpetrator and his victim. Governments, aid agencies and human rights defenders at the UN barely acknowledge its possibility. Yet every now and then someone gathers the courage to tell of it. …

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published May 2011 by Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IranHRDC)

This report documents the ordeals of five former prisoners – two women and three men – who provide their first-hand accounts of being raped, witnessing rape or being threatened with rape during their detention in Iranian prisons.

All acts of rape are grave abuses of human rights. But the abuse takes on an added significance when the rapist is a public official. The UN’s Special Rapporteur on torture states that rape constitutes torture when it is carried out by public officials or happens at their instigation. International and regional human rights bodies have ruled that rape by officials always amounts to torture, and cannot be considered to be simply a common criminal act…”” thanks to Kate Allen from Amnesty International

“….In our culture, victims of rape suffer deep shame and depression. Moreover, the authorities made the situation very intimidating, such that rape victims were afraid to speak up. Even so, some of the rape victims came to see me, and consequently, some of them have been silenced or forced to leave the country. I do not even know how these people are doing or if they are recovering. ..””

01 July 2010/09 August 2010 – Persian2English –

speech given by Shahla Talebi, an Anthropology professor at Columbia University (New York City). The topic was “sexual tensions between the nation of Iran and its government.”

Talebi was imprisoned both during the Shah monarchy and the Islamic Republic regime. Her husband was a victim of the 1988 prison mass executions.

In her talk, she recalls one of her memories of the year 1981: the mother of a leftist activist reports her son’s ideological and religious views to the regime. Her son is consequently executed. Talebi explains the Iranian regime’s male dominated vision and approach …

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Dr. Shahla Talebi continues with describing the difference between the rapes that occurred in Iranian prisons in the 1980′s and the rape of young men in prisons after the 2009 post-election protest:

During the 1980′s the regime still felt strong. It was of course aware of the threat by leftists and the Mujahedin. In fact, the regime thought it could seclude these groups easily from the rest of society.

As if these groups were an external entity, the regime regarded leftists and the Mujahedin as intruders who could be thrown out easily. That is why when they beat me inside the room, they told my husband outside the room that they were torturing his wife fiercely. They did not mean physical torture only. They wanted to make my husband believe that he was not an honorable man and thus they were permitted to do what they wanted to his wife. All this was to make a man feel not brave and honorable, without actually having to belittle him by calling him a woman.

What happened during the 1980′s was different from the events that took place during and after June 2009, because now the regime was positioned in a defensive situation. Its manly characteristics were questioned because part of society rose in opposition. This part of society could no longer be called intruders and strangers. Thus, the regime stopped questioning the honor of a man, and began to question a man’s sexuality. Men were treated the same as women in regards to rape. Do you remember the case of a man whose interrogators instructed the torturers to impregnate him?

When the intentions to impregnate a man is stated, the man is aware he is unable to become pregnant; nonetheless, the man is labelled as a woman incapable of bearing a child [an action intended to imply that the man is an incapable woman].

I would like to emphasize that by observing the transformation of the regime, we can see how it has become more fearful of losing its manly status. That is why it insists to rape men versus raping women like in its previous approach.

When he eagerly joined the mass street protests that followed Iran’s tainted June 12 presidential elections, Ibrahim Sharifi, 24, hoped only to add his voice to the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators demanding that the government nullify the results. He never imagined that he would eventually have a far greater impact, as the only person willing to speak publicly about the brutal treatment he was subjected to in prison, including rape and torture.

Interview with “Radio Farda”. This brave man is one of the people that was arrested after the presidential elections in Iran. After he was released from prison he managed to leave Iran, but before that he met Mr. Karroubi (presidential candidate and the person who took it apon himself to investigate rape and torture claims) and told him about what had happened to him. I didn’t have the heart to hear his own voice but I red his interview with “radio Farda”. Here is a brief retelling of his story
He is a student (computer and Italian language) and worked as a volunteer in Mr. Karroubi’s presidential election campaign. He was arrested after the elections and transferred to an unknown location (with blindfolds). During his stay there he was blindfolded all the time and had his hands tied behind his back apart from those times when they were given food.

During his 3-4 FAKE execution he starts protesting and tells his investigator (torturer): “there is no need for this behavior. If you are going to kill me than kill me”. At that point he gets kicked in his stomach several times, falls on the flour and vomits blod. After that the investigator tells another person who is in that room to “take this …. and make him pregnant”. They drag him away to another room and rape him. He wakes up in an unknown hospital/clinic. From there he is taken to the Sbalan highway and released there. After he gets home he contacts the police and maneges to file a complain about what has happened to him (without telling about the rape). After many difficulties he is told to “let this be…. the intelligence is behind this”. He is than advised to take contact with Mr. Karroubi which he does. During their meeting Karroubi notices “from my voice and how i was talking” that there is something he is not telling so he empties the room. After a long discussion this brave man, finally brakes his silence and tells Karroubi about what they had done to him and bursts into tears.

Later Sharifi is included in a list of people who were presented to a s.c. committee to find the truth. But this committee later announced that there were no proof of any rape in any of the cases that Mr. Karroubi had presented. Right, just like there has never been any rapes in the prisons of the shameful islamic republic during the last 30 years, no way. Nor has there ever been any torture there either. No… these saints don’t do these things.

Anyway, during the hearings he (Sharifi) notices that these people are not after the truth but are rather trying to persuade him to either take back his claim or are trying to persuade him to accept that he has received money from Karroubi in order to tell this. (they are very good at this, everybody who is against them is either a spy, has received money, or is a pervert). He than goes underground, records a tape and sends it to a documentary filmmaker (Mr. Reza Allamehzadeh) and has now managed to leave the country.

I personally salute this brave soul and regret that he and many like him have had to endure such crimes. I hope he recovers from this